This post was published long before the Mists of Pandara Expansion.
The tips and techniques explained here may be outdated.

The problem with a flower-picking hunter

Tikah, my hunter, is currently my Herbalist/Alchemist. It made sense to me at the time that I started it.. but in play I’ve found this combination has issues.

A herbalist gathers flowers. The flowers live in bag slots. Bag slots that could be used for other inventory. This limits the player’s inventory. If you get a herbalist bag then it takes up a whole bag slot.

A hunter shoots arrows. Arrows live in bag slots. You get a 10% bonus if the arrows live in a quiver. The quiver takes up a bag slot further limiting the amount of inventory available to the hunter for non-arrow inventory.

A hunter can track critters (humans, undead, beasts, etc). While a hunter is tracking critters she can’t track flowers (or ore deposits). The one-thing-at-a-time thing is really annoying and limits the hunter’s effectiveness either as a hunter or as an herbalist.

Therefore I’ve decided that my hunter needs to -not- be a herbalist/alchemist. That said, my other characters are getting a ton of usefulness from the potions so I’m not willing to -not- have a herbalist/alchemist character.

I thought about this for a while and decided to start a new Night Elf Druid (Hybrid Spellcaster/Tank so that she can fend for herself). The new druid will pick flowers and turn them into potions. She’ll also skill up fishing since some fish are used in some potions. She’ll also skill up in First Aid enough to use the appropriate bandages.

When the druid’s herbalism/alchemy reaches Tikah’s current level then I’ll re-do Tikah to be a skinner/leatherworker. This was a hard choice.

It seems silly to me to have two leatherworkers.. but since a hunter won’t work as a gatherer toon (and it seems silly to waste a profession) I’ll instead update her to make leather goods. When Tikah’s Skinning/Leatherworking reaches Tikataka’s current leatherworking level then I’ll redo Tikataka to do Skinning/Herbalism. There doesn’t seem to be any issue with a rogue gatherer.